It’s the summer and you want to sell your home, great! But before your property goes live, consider this.
Everyone talks about when you SHOULD sell, but how about when you should NOT? Timing is everything and bad timing can cost you money, big time.
In my opinion, when it comes to the summertime and selling your home, avoid doing it right before a major holiday.
In a hot sellers’ market, people often think, “Who cares when you put your house up for sale, everybody's going to show up, they're going to be lining up. You’re going to get multiple offers; it's going to go way over listing price.”
The truth is that when it comes to selling your house in the summer, people completely forget, especially if you live in a family-oriented community, that a lot of kids go back to school in late August. You also want to remember that people plan to get away for Labor Day as well.
And when people take vacation, the odds are they’re not going to be available to go to an open house. Let’s face it more people out of town, less people paying attention.
Now I understand that sometimes things are out of one’s control, but if you had to pick a perfect time or if you have the luxury of picking the launch date that you're going to sell your home, my recommendation would be that you do it within the first three weeks in August.
Remember, when it comes to marketing a home for sale, you want the most eyes on it as possible within the first seven days. Yes, within the first week! Statistically speaking, the longer you spend on market, the less likely you are to get the listing price.
But why are days on market important? The answer is simple, the longer a home languishes on market, the less likely a buyer is willing to pay full price. Let’s examine this a little further.
If a buyer sees a home on the market in a hot sellers’ market, and it's been on the market for 10, 14 days, the first thing they're going to think is, “Well, what's wrong with it? Why hasn't it sold? Why would I offer over listing price if nobody else has?”
If it goes on longer than that, buyer's smell blood in the water. Even in a hot sellers’ market, there are always buyers out there trying to strike a deal and trying to give a lower bid to see what a seller is going to do.
And what happens if there are no competing offers? Then that's the one offer you must work with. Now, you don't have to take it, but it is an offer, right?
Those first seven days are crucial. If you want your list price, or you want more, the goal is to get competing offers to get well above your asking price. To accomplish this, you need to make sure that you're getting as many people as possible at the property, both physically and online within that first week.
So, before you launch your listing during the summer, make sure that you avoid doing so during a holiday weekend.
If you have any questions or concerns, let’s talk.
Don’t forget to catch up on my weekly show, Taya’s 2 Cents, where share my two cents on different real estate topics from buying and selling real estate, owning a home and more.